Mazmur 42:3

42:3 I cannot eat, I weep day and night; ¹ 

all day long they say to me, ²  “Where is your God?”

Mazmur 42:9

42:9 I will pray ³  to God, my high ridge: ⁴ 

“Why do you ignore ⁵  me?

Why must I walk around mourning ⁶ 

because my enemies oppress me?”

Mazmur 80:5

80:5 You have given them tears as food; ⁷ 

you have made them drink tears by the measure. ⁸ 

Mazmur 102:8-9

102:8 All day long my enemies taunt me;

those who mock me use my name in their curses. ⁹ 

102:9 For I eat ashes as if they were bread, ¹⁰ 

and mix my drink with my tears, ¹¹ 

Maleakhi 2:13

2:13 You also do this: You cover the altar of the Lord with tears ¹²  as you weep and groan, because he no longer pays any attention to the offering nor accepts it favorably from you.

Yakobus 5:4

5:4 Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.

[42:3]  ¹ tn Heb “My tears have become my food day and night.”

[42:3]  ² tn Heb “when [they] say to me all the day.” The suffixed third masculine plural pronoun may have been accidentally omitted from the infinitive בֶּאֱמֹר (be’ÿmor, “when [they] say”). Note the term בְּאָמְרָם (bÿ’omram, “when they say”) in v. 10.

[42:9]  ³ tn The cohortative form indicates the psalmist’s resolve.

[42:9]  ⁴ tn This metaphor pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28; Pss 18:2; 31:3.

[42:9]  ⁵ tn Or “forget.”

[42:9]  ⁶ sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar idea.

[80:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “you have fed them the food of tears.”

[80:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “[by] the third part [of a measure].” The Hebrew term שָׁלִישׁ (shalish, “third part [of a measure]”) occurs only here and in Isa 40:12.

[102:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “by me they swear.” When the psalmist’s enemies call judgment down on others, they hold the psalmist up as a prime example of what they desire their enemies to become.

[102:9]  ¹⁰ sn Mourners would sometimes put ashes on their head or roll in ashes as a sign of mourning (see 2 Sam 13:19; Job 2:8; Isa 58:5).

[102:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “weeping.”

[2:13]  ¹² sn You cover the altar of the Lord with tears. These tears are the false tears of hypocrisy, not genuine tears of repentance. The people weep because the Lord will not hear them, not because of their sin.